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  • mtn

    Feb. 16, 2010 12:14 p.m. mtn SuperDork

    I have a lot of books hanging around that are just taking up space, and I don't want, and the library didn't want either. Does anybody here sell this stuff on Ebay or Amazon? I'd be a newb to both, so any advice would be appreciated.

    I haven't had much time to investigate it yet--haven't looked at ebay at all yet--but it looks like on Amazon, there is a 15% fee, a $0.99 closing fee, and a $1.35 fee for all books... So just using my head, I have to sell everything for at least uh... $2.80 to make anything?

    Any advice/suggestions/comments/complaints?

  • Dr. Hess

    Feb. 16, 2010 12:39 p.m. Dr. Hess PowerDork

    I've eBayed a bit in the past. I dunno about it today, especially for something like selling books. However, whenever I want to buy a book, I look on Amazon first.

  • Feb. 16, 2010 12:45 p.m. abumason New Reader

    I think the place to try is Half.com to sell books. Not sure on the fees these days, but offloaded some old textbooks on there a few years ago.

    Just checked...and whaddya know, half.com is now owned by ebay, so i guess if you have an ebay account it's easier and can take payment via paypal etc. Still didn't check the fees

  • gjz30075

    Feb. 16, 2010 1:02 p.m. gjz30075 New Reader

    Car books?

  • mtn

    Feb. 16, 2010 1:15 p.m. mtn SuperDork

    Art of racing in the rain is one of them.

  • BoxheadTim

    Feb. 16, 2010 1:19 p.m. BoxheadTim HalfDork

    I'm offloading a lot of books and DVDs pre-move. I've given up on selling items like that on ebay years ago, whereas I've got pretty decent results doing so on Amazon. Only issue is if all the books you're trying to sell go for 1c, you probably can't cover the postage properly, at least not here in the UK.

  • Appleseed

    Feb. 16, 2010 3:26 p.m. Appleseed Dork

    I've bought all of my text books on Half.com. The college's bookstore can suck it.

  • MitchellC

    Feb. 16, 2010 4:17 p.m. MitchellC Dork

    Amazon is great for selling textbooks and semi-valuable books. For really common paperbacks, there are usually so many for sale that it makes it a seller's market. I have purchased many for less than a dollar (with the requisite $4 shipping added on).

  • maroon92

    Feb. 16, 2010 4:31 p.m. maroon92 UberDork

    Appleseed said:

    I've bought all of my text books on Half.com. The college's bookstore can suck it.

    I did that with alot of them, unfortunately, my profs always wanted to use "CoursePacks"...

  • ddavidv

    Feb. 16, 2010 4:33 p.m. ddavidv UltraDork

    I've had very little success selling books for meaningful money on Ebay. I do much better offering them on message boards...just sold $96 worth with one post on a racing site.

  • pete240z

    Feb. 16, 2010 4:46 p.m. pete240z Dork

    I bought a book about Art Arfon's at a library sale for a $1 and sold it for $65.00 on ebay.

    I bought a 105 year old book about military physical fitness at a library sale for $1 and couldn't sell it on ebay for $5.

    I sold a stack of old GRM's for $10 on ebay once.

    Ebay? Sometimes I do okay and sometimes I don't. Just plan on shipping US Postal Service Media Mail as it can save you a bunch of money.

  • foxtrapper

    Feb. 16, 2010 5:14 p.m. foxtrapper UltraDork

    In reply to mtn:

    You could always try sticking a listing of them here, and on craigslist for that matter. Probably easiest of it's a fixed price per book, but that may not be worthwhile for some expensive books.

  • Woody

    Feb. 16, 2010 5:22 p.m. Woody UltraDork

    I've had pretty good success selling car books on e-Bay. Out of print tech stuff can bring big money. Forget about novels, though, especially best sellers. They often go unsold at a buck.

  • Appleseed

    Feb. 16, 2010 8:01 p.m. Appleseed Dork

    maroon92 wrote:

    Appleseed said:

    I've bought all of my text books on Half.com. The college's bookstore can suck it.

    I did that with alot of them, unfortunately, my profs always wanted to use "CoursePacks"...

    To which I've replied "Suck it."

  • modernbeat

    Feb. 17, 2010 2:05 a.m. modernbeat HalfDork

    ddavidv wrote:

    I've had very little success selling books for meaningful money on Ebay. I do much better offering them on message boards...just sold $96 worth with one post on a racing site.

    That's funny, I just bought a stack of car related books listed on a racing forum for $96.

    A few I haven't read, a few I'll hand out as gifts, and a couple that will replace books I've loaned out, never to return.

 

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